Bass Lake Blues

Sooooo these days Bass Lake is bumpin' without me :(

 

We got a call Friday night and I got pulled out of the area the next morning for an emergency transfer [ET]! Now I'm in Manteca. I went from the furthest north part of the mission to the most south. WEIRD. I'm back to full time biking!!!! It's tedious to begin with but there are NO hills here and it's suuuch perfect weather to bike in. I'm so excited.. gonna get RIPPED. Other than that, I'm still deciding how I feel about Manteca. I've only been gone for two days but I miss Bass Lake SO MUCH! Transfers are only in a week and a half, so we didn't see that coming at alllllllllll. I'll come back to that though.

 

Before the ET our week was SO GREAT.

 

We had dinner with our investigator and his wife on Tuesday, they have like 4 cats, and they kind of act like cats themselves.. They keep us entertained.

 

On Wednesday we had a lesson with Kevin.. We recently started teaching him with his [now ex]girlfriend (who is a member), he's an AWESOME single dad with 2 teenagers, he used to be an alcoholic, he's been sober for 2 years now and he KNOWS that the strength he's had to change and overcome challenges is completely because of God. We talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and about baptism, the holy ghost, enduring to the end, etc.. He was so pleased to hear about baptism and how it can cleanse him and give him a fresh start, but he wasn't COMPLETELY sold on the idea yet. We were near the end of the lesson and we were discussing what it means to "endure to the end", and he just pops up suddenly and yells "I got my answer! I believe it! I know it's true! I know I need to be baptized. This is what's missing in my life." We were shocked haha, THAT DOES NOT HAPPEN. EVER. But it did. We got over our initial shock and challenged him to be baptized on February 15th. He accepted :) He wants to be baptized sooner, actually.... He just has to come to church. It was such a miracle!

 

Thennnnn a day or two later his girlfriend called us and said he broke up with her via text... Awk awk awk. Obviously Sister McLelland took that phone call, I don't do the "talk about feelings" thing.. Don't know why all that went down, but we're kind of stuck in the middle of it. Beautiful. The  next day I got ET-ed sooo I haven't heard any more. sad sad sad.

 

We finally met with Kelly! Everyone's prayers are workin haha. He's been super sick, and he's had to work (which is good because he needs the work, but sad because SICK...obvs) We gave him a call and he was super happy to hear from us. We had a lesson with him at the library.... Always a bad idea. He's worse at being serious and quiet than I am. We went into the "quiet room".. turned it into the loud room. The librarians weren't pleased but Kelly is working on salvation, so WHATEVER. I think salvation is more important than a bit of quiet time.

 

Friday. Bah. Weekly planning. Normally I hate weekly planning. We plan for all of our investigators and people we want to focus on, what we want to teach them, how we can help the people in our area, where we need to be, when... everything you could possibly plan for the upcoming week. This weekly planning session was FANTASTIC. Sister McLelland and I actually stayed focused and got stuff D-U-N-N DONE. We were super excited for this week. And then we went to dinner that night. Then we took Jordan with us, she just got her mission call so we're taking her out so she can get a lil experience! ....So she came, we tried to visit a few people, people weren't answering, our new investigator dropped us, stuff just was nottt happening. Then we get a call from the AP's (Assistants to the President). AP calls are never good calls. Especially as a visa waiter, you never know. It probably means someone is leaving. Or in big trouble. Usually it means someone is leaving. They called us LAST transfer and Sister Twitchell was ET'ed.. but this tranfer we weren't in a trio, so we thought they were going to call about my visa or something. No bueno. I picked up the phone and they asked me to take on an assignment in Manteca and that I needed to be there ASAP the next day. Bumbumbumbumbummer. I literally could have stayed in Bass Lake for my whole mission and been completely content. It's fantastic. There's just SO MUCH going in that area. Kelly and the Walsh's and the Duffy's are there. I. Love. Them. And Sister McLelland. I've never been so bummed to leave a companion. She is the BEST. Sister Duffy drove me to Carmichael and we got to say goodbye and get pictures with the Walsh's in the morning before I left, that was nice. I'm coming back after the mish and we're all going to Tahoe so it's all good. Chris is a goof. We're going to float on the lake chuggin' some Kool Aid twisters ;). Anywaaaays, I miss Bass Lake a lot. I've grown so much and I have not been happier on the mission than I was there. But I got comfortable. What happens when you get comfortable? God puts you in a situation where you're UNcomfortable... We've all gotta grow.. I just really really really wanted to keep growing in El Dorado.

 

But that's alright, here I am in Manteca, serving in the Northland ward. I've been on the mission for 8 MONTHS. That's almost half way. People think I know what I'm doing now, but I don't have a clue. I'm "old" now on the mission. NOPE. I don't see it. My companion now is Sister Johnson. She's actually a visa waiter, too! She is waiting to go to the Brazil Goiania mission. She is still pretty new in the field, and I'm finishing her training. YIKES. She's almost done luckily, but unless they move us around on transfers I'm still senior companion and I'm follow-up training. I don't know what I can do really, but she keeps asking me questions like I know and I keep trying to answer, so that's a start. I don't know what I'm doing. I won't tell her that, though. There were 4 companionships that were affected with this ET, so we all met at the mission office [in Carmichael where I was "born on the mish :')] and it was a mini mission reunion. Sister Zenger and her trainee [plus one of the ward members that i LOVE who drove them], Sister Burchett and Sister Ward [Burchy came out with my trainer, Ward served in Northridge before me], My new comp and her trainer Sister Cleverly [didn't know them til now], aaaand me and Sister McLelland. It was nice to see everyone again, but SO SAD. We all kind of got flipped around and we don't know why the ET was needed and it's obnoxious because I still want to be in El Dorado. But it's okay. I'll get over it.

 

SISTER HALE IS IN MANTECA THOUGH. We're in different districts, so I won't see a lot of her, but I'll be reunited with my mission mommaaaaa :) So excited for that. Elder Johnson is here too. We're buds. There are a lot of sisters in this zone and I don't know how I like it. They don't laugh. Thus far I haven't met fun missionaries in Manteca (Sister Hale is....just haven't seen her. She's in Tracy, a little further south). Obviously President needed me here to liven it up a little bit. I CAN DO THAT! We're playing volleyball with some of the Zone today, so mayyybe that will change. I hope so. My companion is wonderful and sweet and obedient. But she doesn't laugh at my jokes. She doesn't realize that I'm HILARIOUS. Send me a letter or an email or something cuz I'm missing everyone hardcore right now, and I need a laugh okay? Honestly this transfer looks a little daunting and it makes it a little easier to hear from yall :)

 

WAIT I NEED TO TELL YOU ABOUT THE MEMBER WE'RE LIVING WITH. SHE IS SUCH A BASK.

 

Her name is Sister Pool. She's in her 70's. She acts like she's in her 30's. She is so. much. fun. Her husband and a grandkid passed away last year, and she's recently let the missionaries in her home. She gave us a ride home after church yesterday. Every Sunday she stops at the cemetary, brings flowers or balloons for the grave, cleans it up a bit, and takes a few steps back and plays Be Still My Soul and Amazing Grace on her recorder. It's a legit, indian-looking, wooden recorder. She just stands there and plays a little tribute to her husband. SO CUTE AND SAD AND FUN AT THE SAME TIME. I laugh because emotions aren't an option soooo.. Anyways. After her songs she kneels on hands and knees and kisses the corners of the grave stone, and then shifts to the left on the ground where he's actually buried, and kisses the ground as well. Broke. My. Heart. This woman is dedicated.

 

Okay well this is long, desculpa. It's go time. LOVE YOU ALL. TELL ME ABOUT YOUR LIVES. MAKE ME LAUGH. SEND PICTURES. ANYTHING.

 

Ate logo,

Sister Morrill

HI SORRY. I FORGOT TO TELL YOU ABOUT THE BEST PART OF MY WEEK. There's a man in our ward who l o v e s his hunting. He's the best. He's been to Africa 6 times. When he was in Africa he hunted with Barry Bond? Yeah. Killed lions and zebras and wildabeasts.. He's LEGIT. He has them all taxidermied [if that's a word] and hung on his walls, the lion is standing there in the living room.. IT'S A BASK. The whole house is loaded with dead animals. It's beautiful. He let us come by a couple nights before I left, and well, here's a visual..